The Slovene language is one of the rare modern languages to have retained
the dual-aspect, an archaic grammatical form: in Slovene, this special form
- midway between singular and plural - is used to refer to two things or
to two people. For example, at the verbal level:

I speak/am speaking: - govorim

We speak/are speaking: - govorimo

(three people or more)

We (two) are speaking: - govoriva

The same goes for nouns, e.g.:

a (one) book: - knjiga

(the) books: - knjige

(three or more)

two books: - knjigi

Since Slovene has six cases, with different declinations and conjugations,
it will be clear that the dual-aspect poses a difficult problem for foreigners
wishing to learn our language.

As you may well imagine, this dual form plays a special role in Slovene
erotic poetry. The dual is the language of love, an isle of intimacy. Lying
between two deserts - the silence of solitude, marked by the singular form,
and the voice of the masses, represented by the plural - there is a whispering
oasis which flourishes in our language. Here, two solitudes create a fragile
link speaking to each other in a low voice, protected by the very syntax
of the Slovene language. When one translates Slovene poetry in which the
dual form is used, one loses the atmosphere of intimacy which is granted
us by the very structure of our language. More than any other dimensions
of our culture, it is the dual form which symbolizes the soul of the Slovene
people. Indeed, we often say jokingly that Slovenia is so small that already
two people together form a quantity which cannot be neglected.

The Slovene writer, working in a language which is used by just about
two million people, may almost physically feel the closeness of silence.
And I myself, as a Slovene poet, am not only a gardener of words, but also
at the same time a gardener of silence.

2. Slovene prosody

The alexandrine was extremely important in the shaping of Slovene poetry
during the Age of Enlightenment; in effect, the victory of accentual (more
exactly, accentual-syllabic) prosody against the hardly natural efforts
towards producing quantitative versification in imitation of Greek and Latin
poetry is linked to the introduction of the alexandrine amongst the Slovenes.
Janez Damascen Dev, one of the most important authors of the Pisanice
(almanacs of Slovene poetry during the Age of Reason), relied upon the rhythm
of the German adaptation of the French alexandrine (which is the same as
in English: an iambic 12-syllable rhythm with masculine rhymes, and 13 syllables
with feminine rhymes); for, despite the deep differences which exist between
the German and Slovene languages, the poetry of both languages is based
on accentual (accentual-syllabic) prosody. On the other hand, it is most
interesting to note that Croatian and Serbian poetry is built upon the syllabic
system of versification. Here one encounters a curious phenomenon, which
is that - despite the similarity between the south Slavic languages - the
versification of Slovene is closer to that of the Germanic languages, while
Croat or Serb versification is closer to that of the romance languages.
As a consequence ofthis difference it is easier to translate French poetry
into Croatian or Serbian, precisely on account ofthe rhythmic structure
of the verse, which allows for the transposition of the rhythm of the original;
for the same reason, it is easier to translate German or English poetry
into Slovene.

Following the radical reform of Slovene poetic language introduced by
France Preseren (1800-1849), the greatest poet of the Slovene romantic
era, the alexandrine disappeared from our poetry because its rhythmic structure
did not correspond to the rhythm of Slovene verse. It is, however, interesting
and significant to note that Preöeren did not turn to the models of
German poetry, but rather to the poetic forms of Romance languages, particularly
those of Italian poetry, i.e. the accentual-syllabic verse forms. Preseren's
poetic sensibility enabled him to discover the optimal possibilities for
the rhythm of Slovene verse by combining the accentual principle, which
is fundamental, with the syllabic principle, which is secondary. Despite
its accentual base, one could say that Slovene verse is actually accentual-syllabic.
The introduction by Preseren of the iambic pentameter and of the Italian
sonnet into Slovene poetry corresponded, therefore, to the nature of Slovene
verse. Although Slovene verse belongs to the system of accentual versification,
and Italian verse to the syllabic system, it is precisely the accentual-syllabic
nature which represents the common denominator between these two prosodies.

3. The role of literature in Slovene history

The first written documents in Slovene date from the tenth century. The
Slovene literary language was founded by the priest Primoz Trubar,
the ideologistof the Slovenian Reform movement. On account of the prohibition
on the use of Slovene in the Catholic liturgy and in public life in the
old Austrian monarchy, Trubar had to smuggle the first books printed in
our language from Germany into Slovenia, concealed in casks. The strong
reform movement was conquered by the forces of the Counter-reformation which
restored the Catholic church in Slovenia; thereafter, however, the Catholic
liturgy had to use the Slovene vernacular.

After its modest beginnings in the Age of Enlightenment, Slovene poetry
attained the quality ofan art form during the period of Romanticism, when
France Preseren succeeded in elevating the language of the Slovene peasants
to the level of quality of a European language; it is for this reason that
Preseren is considered the greatest Slovene poet.

The specific circumstances surrounding Slovenian history had the effect
of giving culture - and particularly literature - an exceptionally important
role to play: culture was the main arm of defense in the battle for Slovene
identity. Since it was impossible to wage armed warfare for the independence
of the Slovene People, the Slovenes had to replace the sword by the pen.
During the centuries when the dark clouds of oppression threatened to annihilate
the linguistic and cultural identity of the Slovenes, it was literature
that was the voice of liberation - more powerful than the sword.

This historical situation continued until the twentieth century, when
the functions of the sword and the pen became separated: the struggle of
the Slovene soldiers against the Austrian army at the end of WWI; the resistance
movement against Nazi and Fascist occupation in WWII; and the unanimous
defense against the aggression by the Yugoslav army, which attempted to
occupy Slovenia in 1991 - all these are incontestable signs of the determination
of the Slovenes to become masters of their own destiny. The consequcnce
of this historic change was the gradual divorce of the long marriage between
literature and politics.

It would seem, furthermore, that the political role of literature as
a support for cultural and national identity is renewed whenever liberty
is in danger; it seems that this moral and political role played by literature
in Slovenian society is a form of genetic coding which is reactivated whenever
it proves necessary. Contemporary Slovenian poets, whatever may be their
personal approach to poetry, follow this rule.

4. Slovene Poetry

Since it would be quite impossible to present all the riches of Slovene
poetry, I shall restrict myself to just some of the most important names,
with emphasis onthe twentieth century.

After the death of Preseren in 1849, realism in Slovene literature had
become most fertile in the domain of prose, but had remained relatively
unused in poetry - a situation which was also to be met with elsewhere.
Mention, however, should be made of Simon Jenko, a subtle poet, inspired
by the beauty of nature.

Towards the end of the 19th c., a group of four young Slovene writers
- influenced by contemporary movements in French poetry - revolted against
realism by introducing the poetics of symbolism and decadence. These four
names are of great importance in the history of Slovene literature:

Oton Zupancic is generally considered to be the greatest Slovene
poet after Preseren. His poetry is so musical that it attracted the attention
of Roman Jakobson, who has devoted several analyses to the work.

Josip Murn and Dragotin Kette, known for their impressionist
poetry; sadly, both died very young, atthe ages of 22 and 23 respectively.

The avant-garde made its appearance in Slovenia after WWI: the poet Anton
Podbevsek, a futurist, and - especially - Srecko Kosovel, the
only Slovene poet published by Seghers in the celebrated French collection
Poetes d'aujourd'hui (No. 127), in the translation by Viktor Jesenik
and Marc Alyn. Kosovel, who died at the age of 22, is one ofthe tragic poets
of Slovcne literature. Yet during his short - too short - life, he succeeded
in exploring new dimensions of the universe of poetry. After beginning by
writing poems which were tender, simple, trembling like the light in imprcssionist
paintings - "velvet-soft" - as he himself said, he ended his poetic
and existential adventure by revealing an energy of poetic language hitherto
unequaled in Slovene poetry, and never surpassed; which leads him to use
- at the same time as the Italian futurists, the dadaists and surrealists
- the most radical of poetic approaches.

During the inter-war period, Alojz Gradnik restored neo-romanticism
through the co-identification between love and death (Eros Thanatos).
Anton Vodnik wrote religious odes conveying a neo-symbolist musicality,
while by contrast Bozo Vodusek expressed the despair in his Man
Disillusioned (the title of his collection of poems).

During this period, the literary avant-garde of Slovenia was concentrated
on expressionism; this may be explained by the cultural fact that Slovenia
had always been linked to the area of central Europe, in which this movement
emerged as a typical form of expression for the region; the same holds true
for Croatian literature of this period. By contrast, the Serbian avant-garde
was influenced by surrealism, which can be attributed to the close links
Serbia had with French culture.

Slovene expressionism often has a social tendency, and one towards the
left. Miran Jarc is the most powerful of the expressionists. As a
Partisan, member of the resistance against the Nazi and Fascist occupation,
he disappeared during an Italian offensive. The most celebrated of the resistance
poets are Matej Bor and Karel Destovnik Kajuh, the latter
of whom was also to lose his life during the war. France Balantic,
a gifted poet who combines a rich imagination and a religious vision ofthe
world in classical form, died tragically at the age of 22, burnt alive during
an attack by the Slovene partisans, wearing, unfortunately, the uniform
of the collaborators. His poetry has nothing to do with his political choice.
No: the Second World War in Slovenia was not just a resistance against Fascist
occupation, it was also a fratricidal war, a battle between literary colleagues.

One might perhaps claim that the greatest Slovene poet of this century
is Edvard Kocbek, a powerful personality who has so deeply marked
our recent history that he deserves closer attention. A personalist, linked
to Pierre Emmanuel and to the French review Esprit - he began writing under
the influence of Paul Claudel - Kocbek had been a dissident from the official
Catholic Church, and was the spokesman for the Christian Socialist intelligentsia
before WWII. As one ofthe founders of the Liberation Front against Fascist
occupation, he ended the war as a high-ranking functionary of the State
of Yugoslavia. One might have thought that he would have merited the respect
of his comrades in the Resistance. What a mistake: throughout his life he
had been condemned to be a dissident, a double dissident: the bigots hated
him because of his liberalism, and the communists were wary of him because
he was different. Since he was no longer of use to the communist cause,
the harsh logic of the revolution required that he should be dispensed with.
After the publication of a collection of his short stories, entitled Fear
and Courage, he lost his position; thereafter, he was constrained to
live the rest of his life in cruel isolation. What a contradiction between
this imposed solitude and his poetry, which is a grand ode to the miracle
of existence! Despite certain dark shades, we still have the impression
that the prevailing tone in his work, as shown through the message of his
poems, is a sense of adoration of the entire world, conceived as a divinity.
His poetry, and his personal heroism, exerted a great influence on the generations
of writers who have followed his model of the independent intellectual.

During the socialist period, in order to avoid censorship, writers were
obliged to invent a new literary language - a language full of metaphors,
double and secret messages. For example: after the revolution - when the
communist ideology reigned with nihilistic cruelty, attempting to abolish
all human rights to a private life- literature found a means of battling
back against this nihilism. The poets of the first post-war generation (Joze
Udovic, Ivan Minatti, and the poets from the group-of-four: Janez
Menart, Tone Pavcek, Ciril Zlobec, and Kajetan Kovic,
one of the best contemporary Slovene poets), wrote poems almost entirely
dedicated to love, the erotic dimensions of life, the beauty of nature as
a mirror of the soul, fractured by the coldness of social life. Yet, although
this poetry did not directly express a revolt against totalitarianism, it
was perceived by the authorities as a political message. A paradoxical situation:
without uttering a single word of politics, this poetry was a revolt against
politics.

Thus, this political dictatorship led to fertile production in the literary
field nonetheless, one would not wish for this period to return on account
of its literary successes.

The radical and open revolt against the official aesthetic of socialist
realism dates from the fifties, when a group of writers and intellectuals
introduced existentialistm into Slovene cultural life. (It should be mentioned
that Slovene philosophy has always been more influenced by the existentialism
of Heidegger than by that of Sartre, who, nonetheless, inspired the beginning
of this movement.) Since existentialist philosophy was considered to be
dangerous by the ideologues of the one and only truth, many writers of this
generation found their way into prison.

Dane Zajc was obliged to publish his first collection of poems,
The Burnt Grass, at his own expense because his poetry had been condemned
as being "too somber and pessimistic." The poems of Dane Zajc
are marked by a powerful and painful energy, like a cry. Zajc articulates
the position of a man who has lost heaven and earth. He sings of the vulnerability
of man, yet at the same time this vulnerable man is fatally dangerous to
others. Zajc tells us that we are all victims, but he does not allow us
to have the illusion that we are innocent; on the contrary - he shows us
that we are also torturers of the others! Dane Zajc's poems confront us
with our human destiny: death; but being mortal, we are at the same time
those who give death to others. Despite this pessimistic message, the somber
light of his poetry - with the awareness that each being and each thing
is unique - illuminates the whole world.

Among the post-war poets, Gregor Strnisa is probably the one who
has created the most personal, exceptional and unique poetry. His poetic
approach is so far from what one is familiar with in Slovene poetry and
elsewhere, that it seems as if Strniöa had fallen from a star (astre)
- or rather, using the rhyme invented by Mallarmé - from a disaster
(desastre). His cosmocentric view, his descent into Celtic and Germanic
mythology, his poetic language using certain rhythmic elements of the popular
ballads of bygone times, the unique form of his poems, the composition of
his collections, so pure and geometrically organized after the philosophy
of Kant - all this is an indication of poetic research reaching well beyond
the definitions of history and of literary theory, poetic research reaching
the fire hidden in the shades of time, yet at the same time translating
a sensibility which is wholly modern.

Strnisa has awakened a new interest in popular poetry. The first lady
of contemporary Slovene poetry, Svetlana Makarovic, bases her poetry
on a combination of ancient rhythm and vocabulary with a modern message.
Veno Taufer is one of the most important poetsof this generation.
While having the same poetic force as Zajc and Strnisa he chooses a different
direction. Through his discovery of the enormous possibilities of language
experimentation he became the father of neo-avantgarde poetry of the sixties,
and even one of the precursors ofthe post-modernist poetry of the seventies.

The most radical rupture between traditional and modern poetry is marked
by the poetry of Tomaz Salamun, who introduces word-play that knows no limits.

The literary historian Taras Kermauner has described this poetry as ludism.
With the combination of words no longer motivated in the traditional way,
Salamun discovers a new universe of the imagination. The publication of
his first collection of poems, entitled Poker, in 1966 unleashed
the greatest cultural scandal of post-war times, shocking the Slovene public
and provoking ferocious attacks from the ideologues of tradition. His daring
gesture had enormous influence: after Salamun, Slovene poetry was no longer
what it had been before him. This was thunder, this was an earthquake, and
even the poets who were remote from him felt obliged to define their position
with regard to the cruel star of Tomaz Salamun. I did indeed say: cruel
star. Yes; but at the same time there is in his poetry a thrilling tenderness,
a cosmic vision, an ode to love...

What Tomaz Salamun had created was a true explosion of language. During
the same period there was another poet, no less radical than äalamun,
but one who preferred words of silence to theSalamunesque noise. This poet,
Niko Grafenauer, had chosen a different direction: if the poetry
of Salamun can be described as an implosion of language, Grafenauer's can
be described as an implosion of language; if äalamun can be compared
to Rimbaud, Grafenauer could be compared to Mallarmé. Salamun broke
all the traditional poetic forms; Grafenauer rediscovered the broken form
and filled it with a new language, alter the model of Mallarmé and
Valery. In evoking the confrontation between man and Nothingness, without
any pre-established sense, Grafenauer has based his poetry on the thesis
that in a world devoid of metaphysical, religious and ideological truth
it is only language which gives substance to human existence.

Among the many poets who followed the revolution in poetic language introduced
by äalamun, mention must be made of Ivo Svetina and Milan
Jesih, both of whom have found their individual literary ways.

Ivo Svetina has developed a poetry which is wholly personal and original
by combining an unfettered imagination with the richness of the metaphorical
language and the wisdom of oriental philosophy.

Milan Jesih began his literary career as the most radical representative
of ludism. Once he had made his entry into the Slovene literary scene,
Jesih also affirmed himself as one of the most popular authors - a quality
which is rare indeed among avant-garde writers. He is indisputably one of
the grand masters ofthe Slovene language. In his exploration of the poetic
language he has traversed a long road, leading from avant-garde experimentation
to the rediscovery of the traditional sonnet - an ideal form for his poetic
message - which is at the same time both melancholic and full of irony and
derision.

Milan Dekleva belongs to the avant-garde generation, but it was
only in the post-modern period that his singular voice was recognized. The
musical quality of his verse may be explained by the fact that he is also
a musician. His deep vision is always searching after the secrets ofthe
universe and the paradoxes of human existence.

After the avant-garde revolution, the world remained empty and destroyed,
and this caused a reaction among the young generation of poets who were
to embrace post-modernist poetry.

According to Tine Hribar - the Slovene philosopher who has compiled
an anthology of contemporary Slovene poetry, accompanied by a lucid essay
- the precursors of post-modernism are Veno Taufer, Ivo Svetina
and Boris A. Novak.

Novak is obsessed by the musicality of verse; for him "the meaning
of words must have sound, and the sound must have meaning." He combines
modern sensibility with classical forms, including French ballads or the
sonnet corona. After the hymns he wrote to the miracles of the universe
and of human existence, Novak's poetry took on a darker tone, becoming elegiac
in confronting the tragic experience of the wars in former Yugoslavia.

The poets of the young generation adopted the post-modernist approaches
while also developing their own poetic world.

The intellectual leader of this generation is Ales Debeljak, a
poet who introduced new tones into Slovene poetry by combining refinement
of language with the melancholic atmosphere of a world which has lost its
reality, becoming broken into mirages and simulations. A brilliant essayist,
Debeljak laid down the bases of the literary program of his generation.

After the long series of poets who based their poetry on the richness
of metaphor, Alojz Ihan reintroduced and reinstated the narrative
form as part of the fabric of the poetic text; this arrived as an innovation
in the eighties. Although the subjects of his poems at times follow the
surreal(ist) logic of dreams, Ihan's poetic message is always based on the
deeply-entrenched ethic of concern for human destiny.

Since the poetry of Jure Potokar is impossible to define in a
few words, one must resort to paradox as a source of poetry: Potokar's poems
- which are both static and dramatic, free in the undulation of feeling,
yet very strictly arranged - are a narrative recounting of the landscapes
of music in which time and space, the history of mankind and of the universe,
are revealed.

Although Maja Vidmar belongs to the same generation, her powerful
and uttcrly personal poetic language cannot be labeled by the term "post-
modernism." She has found a new, highly rhythmical, concentrated style
of writing and a fresh, joyful and at the same time painful way of expressing
erotic passion.

Iztok Osojnik started writing in the seventies, but his radical
criticism of institutions has kept him at the margin of the society for
a long time; as a consequence Osojnik has published many books in so called
"samizdat" (at his own cost). Only in the last years has he decided
to give up his marginal status and to share his poetic experience with the
wider audience which has brought him well-deserved critical acclaim. Osojnik's
poetics has its sources in the beat and neo-avantgarde poetry of the sixties,
but he has deepened this frame with the strong emotional touch.

Brane Mozetic is one of the poets who have succeeded in discovering
a new expression of love in our contemporary poetry. The obsessional rhythm
of his verse evokes the pulsation of erotic passion. The thematic novelty
of his poetry rests in the fact that for the first time in Slovene poetry
a poet has sung of homosexual love in such an open manner.

The strength, but also the weakness, of post-modernist literature lies
in a certain academicism, a certain intellectual dryness, which are the
result of a superfluidity or a reflection and a lack of contact with reality.
It is therefore quite logical that, after post-modernist poetry, there should
have been a reaction against intellectualism in order to rediscover spontaneous
emotions. This transition step was made by Uros Zupan, a poet who
was able to find a new way of singing praise to the beauty of the world
and human existence, a poetic voice in which there are intermingled both
sorrow and joy in the search for love. In the youngest generation Miklauz
Komelj and Ales Steger have found their fresh and unique voices.

At the present moment, it is not possible to speak of prevalent movements;
there are only personal poetic approaches - auto-poetiques, self-poetics.

This is the most recent degree in the development of Slovene poetry a
development which, without doubt, will continue along its way, for poetry
is at the heart of the Slovene language and soul.

Copyright by Boris A. Novak

Translated from the French by Alan McConnell-Duff

A Selection of 20th Century Slovene Poetry

Srecko Kosovel (1904-26)

Open

My heart seeks eternity:

from chaos to cosmos.

Glowing flames

illuminate dark cities,

masses move

into silent darness.

into silent darkness. -

We go!

We go!

Fighting death,

fighting death,

wordless wrath expands

and we are being extinguished. -

I, you, all of us.

- Translated by William S. Heiliger

Sresko Kosovel is compared by Slavic scholars to Mayakovsky.
His work is a mixture of objectivism and subjectivism, symbolism, expressionism
and social realism.

The above is selected from Integrals,
described as the core of his poetic work, the first foreign language version
of which was published in French by Pierre Seghers in 1967.

Edvard Kocbek (1904-81)

On Freedom of Mind

I want no fine phrases,

only one word is left for me,

when I fall on the couch I say: no,

and when I dream I suddenly cry: no,

and when I wake I say again: no.

This is my form of defiance,

it makes me healthy and stubborn.

Even when I am tired

I can still say the word: no,

and when everyone is saying: yes,

I guffaw that little word: no.

With this word I control the situation,

it's my form of affirmation,

it makes me clear-headed and cruel.

I am kin to the roots and the shoots,

to ruthless tempests and breezes,

computer printouts are shredded

by my brief word: no.

The calculation always has to begin again,

when they say I am guilty

my actions say I am innocent.

The law of freedom of the human mind

is like the quiet defense of ancient rights,

a command to the clown is a prohibition,

I don't want to be a madman or monster,

I get hoarse amidst the din of machines,

from mountain to mountain nine echoes of: no

are heard by my neighbor as: yes.

-Translated by Michael Scammell and Veno Taufer

Edvard Kocbek is perhaps the foremost Slovene
poet. He was an anti-fascist resistance fighter in WWII.

Kajetan Kovic (b. 1931)

Dead Soldiers' Autumn

The leaves are falling now

As we ourselves that autumn season fell

Among the sombre leaves of history.

For glory of one homeland or another

We laid ourselves, to order, down to rot.

Passer-by, remembrance pays no ransom.

Our death remains, so do not feel your way

To final desperation in our dust:

Above us, look,

New blades of grass are growing:

But out of us there cannot grow again

So much as one root to one blade of grass

And if there is some homeland somewhere still,

The day when we could die for it is done.

Something

Something is buried

in the earth or in a long life

or in the hands of the body

heady as valerian

and heavy as ore

sometimes it sinks among the horrors of Atlantis

into a cold compartment of hell

to be born anew

from sea from foam

light as heart-murmur

and unreal

as a house of wind

blessedly

ungraspable

placed among stars

always present

in all things and nowhere.

- Translated by Alasdair MacKinon

Kajetan Kovic was born in Maribor, Slovenia. The poems
included here are from the first English edition of his poetry, which will
be published by the Slovenian Writer's Association.

He is also a translator of French, German, Russian, Czech
and Hungarian poets.

Veno Taufer (b. 1933)

Perhaps the Juniper Needles

this pain is not to be survived

the luminous rain

which cries through the airless spece

unless beyond the monotony of sound

through its fissures there is

that dust perhaps that pollen

which no spider web can catch

nor even the darkness of memory

just this no more after that come the words the voices

the wizard letters the runefrost

perhaps the juniper needles

perhaps the unsurvivably sweet motion of a blade of grass

moving to the white breath of the fleet dragon

before the maw that space vanishing along teeth into a darkness

blue beyond the azure of candles

now the drops the drops just this

what kind how long

how many drops

what are the limits

as the memory curves

in upon itself

- Translated by Milne Holton

Former head of Slovene Writers' Association
and Chairman of its Committee for Freedom of Thought and Writing (1985-89).
His poetry represents both modernist and postmodernist currents.

Milan Dekleva (b. 1946)

Origin of Language

Women talk the jargon of shattered flowerbeds

The sick talk from pain

Stones from stoniness

The stars mumble the gravitation of light.

To the prophet and illusionist the voice lends revelations.

The meadows are littered with alphabets of ants,

the cantilena of towns is a criss-cross of errands.

Only freedom speaks the pathos of its own being,

which is freedom.

That speech is on the boundary.

It convenes the whole world

at the human ear.

Encircles us, as death encircles life.

Like wide-open doors we flap in time,

the hundred times safeguarded secret

of worthlessness.

- Translated by Alasdair MacKinnon

Milan Dekleva is also a playwrite, composer
and journalist. He writes lyrical poetry.

Iztok Ósojnik (b. 1951)

A Tram Named Grinzing

They killed Conrad in the first war.

I have seen two.

I had many men. The times

were such. Conrad

I remember well.

For a long time I crushed the heart

of a celebrated poet. Let's not mention names!

Whereas now I can't even see

the damned umbrella

I placed

right here, in front,on the floor of the tram.

We've just stopped

at the Siveringstrasse

The next stop's mine.

- Translated by Mia Dintinjana

Iztok Ósojnik is also a translator
and painter. He's published 8 books of poetry.

Alojz Ihan (b.1961)

Apple

As soon as I came on guard duty, the little girl

began to act strange. She stood by the trench which

surrounded the barracks, she was maybe six,or seven,

wearing the wide trousers - red - had black hair, a real, real

little Albanian girl; as I began to walk alongside the trench,she began

marching in the same direction herself; soon I could see

she was mimicking my every step, even my posture; she was playing

my shadow and I became nervous, there could have been

irredentists nearby waiting for the little girl

to make me inattentive. So I motioned forhere to

leave, at once. She halted, than she laughed,

reaching into her satchel, and pulled out an apple.

She swung her arm and threw the apple toward me. I jumped

behind a shelter, hugged my automatic, waited

There was no explosion. I lowered the barrel. "I won't

shoot the little girl," I told myself, "she doesn't understand."

Then I watched the apple, big, red, it looked totally authentic.

I made a threatening motion in the little girl's direction,she

became frightened and started to run away. I didn't know what

to do with the apple. It could have been injected

with poison; if I bit into it, I might die or at least fall asleep,

and then the irredentists would cross the trench and butcher me.

I didn't know if the poison worked at the mere touch,and so,

as a precaution,I did not touch the apple,nor did I kick

it into the trench, I just stood there and waited,

helpless. It seemed to me that these things were too big

and too complicated for me and that I should realy report everything

to the commandant; if I sounded the alarm, all my worries

would be over, the siren would howl, and there we'd all be,

elbow to elbow in the trenches, guns at the ready.

Really, I didn't know what to do and I became so nervous

it almost hurt. Then, luckily,the next watch came.

-Translated by Tom Lozar

Alojz Ihan is also a physician and professor
of immunology at the Medical Faculty in Ljubljana.

Boris A. Novak (b. 1953)

The First Poem

I lock myself in the bathroom,

fill the bath with warm, hot water,

undress and stretch myself into the utter

freedom, in my warm, hot butcher-bed.

Clouds of steam. I hardly find a soap.

And throw it to the wall. Then I search

for a razor. In the very last moment a strange decision

delays the blade for an indefinite time:

to write a poem. Because I'm so hungry for

words. About fear. And grace. And reflections

on the water. About this terrible, beautiful day when I rose

out of my own death. Wet. Naked. Different.

Different eyes are watching me from the mirror.

For this indefinite tie which still lasts: thanks.

Vertigo

The bottom has cracked beneath my feet

like a dark womb of the utter secret,

a magnet inviting me into the hole of madness,

an inborn dread, a voice of the throat just cut.

Obsessed by the childish fear of falling

I cover the abyss with smooth mirrors:

such silver and foam on this ice-field

that all the things glitter like fairy-tale treasures!

Reflecting images multiply the presence

into the narrow space, into the infinity

which is a surface of glass, a surface of the glass scaffold.

I am no longer afraid to stare into the deep.

Now I feel death in the slippery mirror,

in the vertigo of the surface.

- Translated from Slovene by the author.

Boris A. Novak was born in Belgrade. President of the
Slovene P.E.N (1991-96) and Chairman of the Writers for Peace Committee

of International P.E.N. since 1994. He is a dramaturge
for the Slovene National Theater and writes children's literature. He also
translates